


Gameshow Love

by LyriaFrost



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Gameshow AU, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:43:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1296919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyriaFrost/pseuds/LyriaFrost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray is dating the popular hosts of the Let's Play gameshow.  But a misunderstanding on the part of the fans ends up causing some problems for them.  I decided to rewrite this story and add it as a second chapter to this work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short little story I came up with one night. I hope to rewrite it someday so that it's better, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I lost my inspiration for this piece, so help would be greatly appreciated.

"Hello all, and welcome to Let's Play! The hilarious show where my partner and I decide to try out all your stupid ideas! I'm sure you all know this already, but my name is Michael!" 

"And my name is Gavin!" Ray stood backstage, smiling faintly as he watched his boyfriends being total idiots out on stage. He knew how much they loved this show, some silly little idea that they had come up with years ago in Michael's basement. It was now a top-rated show, and the two men were famous. 

The young man pulled his phone out of his pocket as it vibrated, sighing when he saw it was just one more hate-filled email. They all said the same thing, how he was an awful person and needed to get away from Michael and Gavin before he screwed them up. He stared down at his phone, the words echoing in his head as he thought back to when he met the two men. It had been a convoluted meeting - Gavin's pseudo-father Geoff had brought them along to a New Year's party that Ray's friend Ryan had been holding, the two older men being friends from college days. 

Ray had been hiding behind his camera, but was immediately intrigued by the two men, and found himself taking pictures of them almost exclusively. Gavin loved it, being a total ham whenever he noticed the camera, but at the end of the night Ray had gotten a call from Michael, who had stolen his number from Ryan, and that had been that. They had hung out, played videogames, brainstormed ideas for the show, and soon enough Ray had been hopelessly in love with both of them, and they had reciprocated the feelings. 

They had decided to keep the relationship secret for exactly the reasons that were currently impacting Ray. The general public already knew about Michael and Gavin, they were openly affectionate on the sets. But then Ray and Michael had been caught out on a date, and now people thought that Michael was cheating on Gavin, and so Ray had been getting all sorts of hate from the fans. Suddenly, Ray was pulled out of his thoughts by a hand pulling his phone away. He looked up to see Gavin there, looking sadly down at him. 

"C'mon love, don't listen to them." He softly kissed the shorter boy, and it was then that Ray could hear Michael yelling from on stage. 

"We have something to tell you assholes, so you better shut the fuck up and listen, okay? Gavin, Ray, come out here." Gavin grabbed Ray's hand, squeezing reassuringly, and pulled the younger boy onto the stage with him until they stood next to Michael, who grabbed Ray's other hand. 

"Alright, so you guys know we love our fans, right?" There was a loud cheer from the studio audience, who had gone strangely quiet upon Ray's arrival. "Well, we usually love our fans anyway. Lately, you've all been a bunch of mingy plebs, and we'd like it to stop." 

"Basically what Gav says, but without the stupid British insults." Michael ignored Gavin's muttered "oi" in favor of glaring at the audience. "I want to put to rest all these stupid rumors. I am not cheating on Gavin, and I would never do something like that. This man right here, Ray Narvaez, is both my boyfriend and Gavin's. We are very happy together." 

"Or we were, until you lot decided that it was your business to 'defend our relationship' as you told Ray so many times. So we've decided that if this bloody hate mail does not stop, we'll be canceling our show." Ray reacted for the first time since he had been pulled on stage, stepping out from where he was positioned slightly behind Gavin. 

"Wait... wait, you can't cancel your show because of me! This is... this is what you love-" Michael pulled Ray around, kissing him. 

"We love the show, Ray, but we love you even more. You're more important to us than all this. So if they keep harassing you, we'll quit the show and go be normal people again. Because we never intend to let you go." Most of the audience was cheering wildly, it was only a small portion of the fanbase that had been causing the problems, but even that small minority had been so loud that they had been having a huge impact. But the rest of the fans, the majority of the people, were just happy. 

"Now we know that most of you guys are pretty awesome people who would never lash out at us. And so we've decided to do a special little segment on today's show where we will tell you about ourselves... now just so you all know, this is not an invitation for you to bombard us with questions on our personal lives in the future. We will most likely never do this again, but we figure its probably the best solution right now." 

"So we have a couple of mics set up in the audience there, so people can line up to ask us questions for the next 20 minutes or so. But if we don't like your questions, we won't answer them, so don't be silly little sausages, just ask us good questions." The three men retreated to sit on a sofa that had been placed on stage for them, Ray tucked in between the other two still. And as he sat on stage with Michael and Gavin, holding both their hands and listening to them tease each other and interact with the audience, he forgot all about those awful people and was simply happy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clear up any confusion, this is not really a second chapter, it is a rewrite of this story that is a lot longer, and that I like a whole lot more.

"Alright all, that's the end of the show!" 

"Hope you all had fun with us here today on Let's Play! The ridiculous show we try out all of the stupid ideas that you guys come up with!" 

"Big cheer for our live studio audience! They were pretty top this week!" 

"Make sure to come back next week so you can get to see more of the awful ideas you assholes somehow manage to come up with!" Ray laughed backstage as Michael and Gavin came running off set, the British man somehow managing to trip on absolutely nothing at all. Fortunately, he somehow managed to trip right into Ray's arms, and he stared up at the smaller man with a cheesy grin. 

"Look, love, I'm just falling for you all over again." Ray laughed and shoved him back into Michael's arms. 

"That was so cheesy, dumbass." 

"Eh, you love it." Ray leaned over and kissed first Gavin and then Michael. 

"Yeah, well, there's gotta be some reason why I stick around." Michael shoved the British boy back up onto his own two feet, just as Jack came over. 

"Good job with the show, guys. There's a few messages for you from some producers wanting you to make an appearance on their shows, but those can wait for the weekly meeting. Gavin, I think Barbara has some shots to go over with you for some of the clips we're filming for next week, but other than that, we're done here." 

"Thanks, Jack. Is Geoff here yet?" 

"Yeah, he's in the back talking with Burnie, waiting for your British ass." 

"I know, I know, I'm going now. Have fun on your date, loves, I'll see you back at the apartment tonight." Gavin kissed both of them before running off to find Geoff, as they had a design meeting that evening over drinks for some of his filming work. Michael reached over and grabbed Ray's hand, squeezing gently. 

"Ready for our date tonight, babe?" 

"Yeah, sure, I just need to grab my camera bag from the back room." 

"Oh right, you had that big photo shoot today, how did that go?" 

"Pretty well, I think. Ryan really liked my work and so did the editors. They want to do a full six page spread of photos in the upcoming magazine, and maybe even do some more for the next issue." 

"Really? That's great, Ray! Of course, we never doubted you, you always take the most amazing photos." The two men walked back to the back room and Michael grabbed Ray's bag, swinging it onto his shoulder as they made their way out to the Jersey man's car. They enjoyed a nice dinner at a fancy, quiet Italian restaurant. They talked about Ray's job as a photographer, Gavin's various mishaps on stage that day, the plans they were making for a vacation in a few weeks. This particular restaurant was one they liked very much, because the staff were discreet and the booths were very private, so they weren't really noticed while out and about. Except that something was different this time, because as they were leaving, Michael caught the flash of a camera out of the corner of his eye. 

"Michael! Someone must have recognized us and called the paparazzi..." 

"I know. Well, fuck... there's really nothing we can do about it now, they've already seen us." Ray quietly slipped his hand from Michael's. 

"Here, just... keep walking. Hopefully they won't have seen our hands, so you go that way and I'll go this." Michael looked at Ray for a moment, standing there staring at the ground, so willing to do whatever to protect others. Then he reached over and grabbed Ray's hand again. 

"No, c'mon, just keep walking, pretend they aren't there." 

"M- michael? But- then everyone will know about you and I and what are they going to say about you and Gavin and-" 

"Ray, just hush. I don't care, I'm not ashamed to be seen with you, and we'll deal with everything else." Michael pulled him along, moving on to the parking lot where their car was. The cameras followed them all the way, until they were safely on the roads headed back to their apartment. Ray was pulling away from Michael, huddling into the door with his face pressed against the window. The older man tried to start conversations a few times, but after all of the interactions consisted of head motions and one word answers, he gave up and they rode the rest of the way in silence. 

As soon as they pulled up outside their apartment building, Ray was out of the car and in the building before the car was even off. Michael turned the key and leaned forward, resting his head on the steering wheel. They had known something like this would happen eventually, they couldn't hide forever. It was amazing enough that no one had discovered the apartment that the three of them had been sharing for a year. He finally got out of the car, grabbing both of their bags out of the back, and heading upstairs. Gavin was there, sitting on the couch, but there was no sign of Ray. 

"Bloody finally, Michael! What happened? Why is Ray so upset?" 

"Where... where is Ray?" 

"He came running in and locked himself in the bedroom before I could even move. What's going on?" Michael came and sat down next to him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. 

"He... we were out at that little Italian place that we love so much. But- someone must have recognized us because as soon as we left, there were cameras everywhere. Ray wanted us to split up, and hope that they hadn't gotten any pictures of us holding hands. But I told him- told him that I was tired of hiding and I wasn't ashamed and I let them take pictures of us holding hands, I told him not to care, but... I think he cared a lot more than I thought, and maybe I shouldn't have pushed him to do that." Gavin wrapped his arms around Michael and hugged him tight. 

"Don't second guess yourself, love. You know we've talked about this, all three of us, and Ray... Ray is just scared because he doesn't want to cause any problems for you and I. C'mon, we need to go talk to him." The two stood, Michael refusing to let go of Gavin's hand as they knocked on the bedroom. 

"Ray? Sweetie, is it alright if we come in?" They stood there outside the room for so long that they weren't sure if the youngest man had fallen asleep or not, but finally they could hear the rustling blankets and then click of the lock being opened. The room was pitch dark, shades closed tight, and Ray sat back down on the bed, wrapped in the large comforter. Gavin flipped on the small bedside lamp, filling the room with a dull yellow glow, and in the soft light they could see the man's red-rimmed eyes and tear-stained cheeks. 

"Oh, love..." 

"'m sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry... I just- I don't even know..." Gavin and Michael sat down on either side of Ray and each wrapped an arm around him. 

"Ray... I'm sorry for what I did, I didn't even think that maybe you weren't ready to be seen with us, I was just thinking about what I was feeling..." 

"No, no! I'm not upset about that... it felt so nice that you weren't afraid of being seen with me, but... I don't want to cause any problems for you, I mean, everyone already knows that the two of you are together, it's not like a secret or anything. But I'm a secret, and I always just thought I would stay a secret, and now I'm so confused about everything." 

"Love... we never wanted you to stay a secret. We're not ashamed of you, we're not afraid of anyone knowing." 

"We kept it a secret in the beginning because we wanted you to be able to walk away anytime you wanted, without fear of the repercussions of public opinion following you around. We wanted you to feel safe, to be able to do whatever you wanted without having to worry. But we love you, completely and totally, and we don't want to hide it forever. We don't want to hide you, ever." Gavin stood and stripped down to his boxers, encouraging Ray and Michael to do the same before he got them all three tucked into bed, Ray cuddled between both of them. 

"Do you remember when we first met, love? At that party that Geoff was throwing for all his friends? And Ryan came along, and he brought you with him. And Michael and I were there, standing to the side and talking about the new show that we were still trying to get off the ground. But as soon as we saw you, we both knew that we wanted you. You were so, just... quiet, standing there with your camera and refusing all the drinks that anyone offered you, just sipping from your water bottle." 

"Gavin thought you were so cute, he just wanted you to notice him. Hence all the hamming it up for the camera that he did that night." 

"Oi! In case you haven't noticed, I act like that anytime there's a camera around." Ray laughed quietly. 

"Actually, you act like that all the time, camera or not." 

"I resent that." Once the chuckles quieted down, the three simply lay there, all tangled in each other. It was obvious Ray had something else to say, but the others were just waiting for him. 

"I... um... is it really okay? I know you let them see, but is that... okay?" 

"Don't worry, Ray, we'll deal with the repercussions that we'll get. Will it be okay for you?" 

"Yeah, um... I texted Ryan about it a little bit okay, so that he knows... I'm assuming that story will come out probably tomorrow, I didn't want him to be surprised... but I don't think it'll cause any problems for my work. I'm just worried about yours." 

"Nah, Geoff and Jack and everyone else who works there already knows about you. We might lose some of our audience, but given the way that Gavin and I act on stage, it won't be a problem for most of them." 

"Everything will be fine, love." The rest of the night was just spent with cuddles and simple reassurances, none of the men getting very much sleep. Ray had a big photo shoot with Ryan the next day, so he was kept busy most of the day. Michael and Gavin had a production meeting for their Let's Play show, but they were at home by the time Ray came back at dinnertime. He bounced in the door, chattering happily about the models he had been working with, having nearly forgotten about the troubles of the night before, until he caught a glimpse of the newspapers on the kitchen table. He came over to look at them over Gavin's shoulder, while Michael stood and wrapped his arms around him. 

"It's alright, babe, it's not as bad as we thought." Ray was surprised to find that Michael was right. Even with the careless way they had walked to the car, it seemed that none of the photographers had been able to get a clear shot of them holding hands, and so all the headlines were pure speculation. 

'Popular Gameshow Host Caught With Up-and-Coming Photographer' 

'A Tangled Romantic Web: Host and Photographer Seen Together' 

'New Photos from a Special Night Out Between Two Secret Lovers?' Gavin was on the phone, talking to someone that Ray thought was probably Geoff by the way they were speaking. 

"I know, I know, what does Jack want to do about it?... Really? I thought for sure he would have had an opinion... So it's up to us then?... Alright, I'll talk to the others about it, we'll let you know when we make a decision... Yeah, for now we'll just say nothing... Alright, bye." Gavin hung up the phone and leaned his head back, resting it against Ray who was still standing behind him. "So that was Geoff, he says that he talked to Jack and Ryan about this whole thing, and they've all decided that it's up to us to decide how to handle it. For now, no one is going to say anything about it, so we have a couple days to think before even more reporters start coming after us." 

"Let's just take tonight to think about it, we can talk in a little while, but I think we should make dinner first... probably isn't a great conversation to have when we're all hungry and emotional." Michael went off to start dinner, leaving Gavin and Ray sitting at the table, since neither were allowed in the kitchen without his direct supervision anyway. Gavin was too likely to hurt himself, and Ray just didn't know what he was doing. Gavin was still sitting, just staring at all the papers on the table, so Ray quietly stacked them up and moved them to the side before moving to sit on the British man's lap. He felt arms come around him and hold him tightly as a face was buried in his neck. Gavin just stayed there, hiding himself in Ray, who could feel the hot quick breaths around his neck. 

"Hey, what's wrong? C'mon, Vav, talk to me." 

"It's nothing, X-ray." 

"It's not nothing, now talk... please." Gavin sighed, squeezed a little tighter before pulling back to kiss Ray on the forehead. 

"It's just- I can't believe that people have nothing to do except gossip about people like us. You should have seen some of the other headlines, I only got the ones that sounded somewhat acceptable but some of those papers... they were saying things, wondering why Michael would cheat on me, speculating that he and I were fighting, one even claimed that you were just some back-alley whore that he picked up because he had some secret kink that I wouldn't go along with. I hate those people saying things about us, because none of them know the truth, no one even guessed anything close to the truth. They just jump to the idea that is the most sensational, causes the most drama. I hate it." 

"They don't know anything, sweetheart. They don't know you or me or Michael, they're just closed-minded idiots who are pandering to society's need to get involved in everyone else's life. But it doesn't matter, the things they say don't matter... because everyone who matters to us knows the truth, and accepts us just how we are. We don't need all those people out there... though I agree, and I wish they would stay out of our lives. But come on, let's go help Michael in the kitchen, we all need a distraction from this mess for now." The two made their way into the kitchen, Michael letting out a mock groan when he saw them. 

"Oh god, not you two idiots. You better not mess up my kitchen again." 

"We just came to help!" 

"The Mighty Mogar needs no help!" Michael tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't help laughing. 

"Well then, Mighty Mogar, you can just say we forced you. Is there anything we can do?" The Jersey man set the other two to washing and prepping some vegetables to add to the soup he was preparing, and dinner was done in a short time with three people working together. They sat down to watch TV together as they ate, distracting themselves with reality shows and other things that they could watch and make fun of. 

After dinner was the time they put aside for evening work, checking emails and the like. Gavin and Michael disappeared into the office to go over some paperwork for an upcoming guest appearance, and Ray grabbed his laptop and settled in at the table. He opened up his email, looking for something from Ryan with a schedule for the following week's shoots, but instead found almost a hundred new emails in his inbox. There were the normal things, spam emails for Viagara, some funny picture things that his mom liked to forward to him, a couple emails from models who were looking to get some photos done. But overwhelming all of those were emails from people that Ray didn't know, things that all had subject lines like 'slut' 'how could you?' or 'cheater'. He opened a couple, even though he knew that he would probably regret it. 

'You fucking cheater! How could you do that? How could you get involved in a relationship like that? They are already perfect without you, you're just going to mess it up. You got Michael to cheat on Gavin, how could you do that?' 

'You obviously must have no heart to go after someone who's already in a perfectly happy relationship. You're just a monster!' Ray got the sinking feeling that no matter what form of social media he turned to, he would be faced by the same reaction. By the time Michael and Gavin came back about 20 minutes later, Ray had made it through half the emails in his inbox, reading them out of some misplaced sense of guilt and pain. 

"Love, what are you doing? Why are you crying?" Gavin pulled him away from the computer, kneeling down in front of him and wrapping him up while Michael grabbed the computer and read what was on the screen. Gavin couldn't see anything from where he was, but he could see Michael getting more and more angry until he finally slammed the computer shut, startling both of the younger men. 

"Ray, baby, don't listen to any of them, alright? They're completely wrong about you, you haven't done anything wrong, you're absolutely perfect, okay? None of them understand anything." Michael reached over and pulled Ray up, hugging him tightly for a moment. "I promise, they're all wrong. Go get changed for bed, alright? Gavin and I will just finish closing up out here and then we'll join you." After Ray had trudged off, Michael collapsed to the ground in front of Gavin who was still very confused. 

"Michael... what's going on? What was on his computer?" 

"Those fuckers... Gavin, they've been sending him emails. Just like the ones I got, only a million times worse."  "Who?" 

"Fans, I guess, I don't know... people who saw the articles and are sending Ray emails, telling him that he's a slut and a whore and a horrible person for getting in the way of our relationship." Gavin's face paled, even as Michael's was getting redder and redder with anger. 

"Michael... what are we going to do about this?" 

"I don't know, babe." The curly-haired boy looked about ready to cry, and Gavin quickly gathered himself up. 

"Don't worry, love, we'll get through this. How about you go lay down with Ray, okay? I'll finish up out here." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Positive. There's not much left to do anyway, and I'm sure Ray needs you, so go ahead." Michael leaned forward and kissed Gavin roughly. 

"He needs you as well, and so do I, so don't take long." With that, Michael was up and gone, stamping down the hall to their bedroom. Gavin puttered about for a bit, putting away the dinner leftovers, washing the handful of dishes, turning out all the lights, making sure the doors were locked. When he got back to the bedroom, Ray and Michael were both nearly asleep, curled up around each other in their big bed. He got changed as quietly as he could, and slipped into the bed next to Ray, who he had thought was fast asleep, but proved him wrong by immediately rolling over and wrapping his arms tightly around the Brit. Michael's arm wove over both of them, coming to grasp Gavin's hip and pulling him in close so that there was no an inch of space between their three bodies. It was like this that they fell asleep, and woke up again. 

Today was one of Ray's days off, and those were days that he usually spent at work with Michael and Gavin, following them to their production meetings or just hanging out with some of the people who worked backstage, like Kerry, Miles, and Barbara. He didn't really feel like going that day, but Michael and Gavin refused to let him stay at home alone, so he found himself trailing behind as they entered their little studio. 

Ray could remember the first time he had been in the building, back when it was just a few people with much less equipment than currently filled the space. The two men had started the company as a Youtube channel where they did anything they dared each other to do. Eventually, it had started to become incredibly popular, especially since both the hosts were so attractive. It was just a bonus that the two men (then boys) had been dating since high school and were entirely comfortable with showing their relationship in the show. They had gotten sponsors, millions of views, appearances on various talk shows, and eventually even an invitation to create a television show with a live studio audience and suggestions from the viewers. It was a dream come true for the two men, who just loved to be idiots and play around all day. 

Back when Ray had first met them, they were just getting the TV show up and running with the little bit of funding they had been awarded. Geoff had thrown a party to celebrate the first episode, and had invited Ryan who was an old college friend, and also happened to be Ray's mentor. And Ray had been living with Ryan at the time, having just gotten out of a bad relationship, and so Ryan had dragged him along to the party. Which had been the best decision ever, because Ray had met the two fabulous hosts, fell in love with them, and here they were a year later. With a hit TV show, and a photography career on the rise, all three of them had their plates full. This whole drama mess was really not something they needed to deal with. 

But all of the crew for the show already knew about their relationship, and they were completely supportive of the three. Burnie, the producer, was the one who had fought to bring Gavin to the U.S. all those years ago, and Geoff, their manager, was the Brit's adoptive father. Jack, their director, was great friends to Burnie, Geoff, and Ryan, and the rest of the cast was like family as well. 

Throughout the day, Ray was passed around from person to person, everyone keeping him busy and keeping his mind off of the problems at hand, something Ray was very grateful for because he knew that if he was home alone, he wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it. Sometimes his phone would chime with a new email or a tweet or something of the like, but someone was always there to grab his phone and screen the content first. Ray thought that he should have found that annoying, but he really didn't. Anything was better than reading more of those messages. 

"Alright, love, that's the last bit of business. Ready to go home again?" Ray looked up from where he was talking with Miles about some videogame stuff. 

"Yeah sure. See ya, Miles." The routine of that night was much the same as the night before, except that when it came time for nightly work time, Michael and Gavin refused to let him move from the couch. 

"So Gavin and I decided that we need to talk about this tonight, and decide what we're going to do about this whole issue." 

"Oh... um, okay... well- what do you want to do then? I'm- I'm good with anything... whatever is best for you guys." 

"Love... you're still thinking that we would rather keep you a secret? Let you go rather than deal with a few problems?" 

"Well, it's just... everyone is right, you two are such an awesome couple and everyone loves you, and I don't really know what I'm doing here. You're both perfect and I'm just... a mess who's ruined relationships in the past." 

"Ray, no... that relationship... that past boyfriend of yours was an abusive jerk and I thought- I thought you knew better than to listen to anything he ever said to you because it was all wrong. He wanted someone to control, not someone to love." 

"But we're nothing like that... we love you, we don't ever want to let you go. All those people are bloody wrong, okay? So just put everything they said out of your mind, because it doesn't matter." 

"I'm sorry-" 

"Nope, no sorry. We might be an awesome couple, but we want you with us and we're perfect with you around. As cliche as it sounds, you're the missing to piece to me and Gav, you fill up all the little cracks in our relationship and make everything fit perfectly. We couldn't go back to being without you, so now we have to figure out what to do, because we're not willing to let you go. But we're willing to go along with whatever you want. Are you done with this relationship? Do you want to go public or just deny the rumors and wait for it to die down?" 

"I- I know I want to stay with you two... I can't imagine being with anyone else, I can't imagine going anywhere else. But... I don't know about going public or not. It won't harm my career at all, at least not in a way that I'll really suffer for. What do you two want to do?" Michael and Gavin shared a look over Ray's head. 

"Do you trust us, love?" 

"Of course I do, with my life." Michael laughed and kissed him on the nose. 

"Well, we aren't asking for quite that much. But if you're okay with anything we choose, then come to the show next week, alright? Gavin and I have a plan, and we want you there." 

"And the second part of it is that you have to stay here, with us, until then... we already talked to Ryan and he said you don't have anything important to do. So the three of us are just going to stay around the apartment and relax and none of us are going to do any work and we're going to ignore all those bloody tossers out there who think they have a right to tell us how to live our lives." 

And so Ray found himself standing backstage again, watching Gavin and Michael fooling around onstage as they commented on a video clip of them trying to play Slender together. They had spent a lovely few days at home, holed up with plenty of food and movies and nothing to do but lay around with each other and enjoy a few days off. Ray hadn't looked the emails and the tweets and the messages in all that time, but now as he stood off stage, he couldn't help but pull the messages up on his phone. 

'Stupid whore!' 

'Can't believe you would do something like this, why would you do it?' Ray stood there staring down at his phone, lost in thought as he read and reread the messages, until there was a hand blocking his view of the screen. Gavin reached in and quietly grabbed his phone, pulling it away and tucking it into a pocket. 

"C'mon, love, don't listen to them. Trust Michael and I, remember?" Ray smiled and grabbed his hand, squeezing tight. 

"Right, trust two idiots like you. That couldn't possibly go wrong." Gavin laughed and stole a kiss. 

"And yet you do it anyway." Just then, Ray could hear Michael yelling something on stage. 

"Jesus, Gav! How long does it take you to run back there and grab him? Hurry up and get back out here before I go completely grey!" 

"Oh shut it, you bloody wanker." Gavin tugged on Ray's hand, pulling him out on stage with them. 

"Alright then, we have something to tell you assholes, so you better shut the fuck up and listen, okay?" Michael grabbed Ray's other hand, so that he was securely bracketed between the two of them. 

"Alright, so you guys know we love our fans, right?" There was a loud cheer from the studio audience, who had gone strangely quiet upon Ray's arrival. "Well, we usually love our fans anyway. Lately, you've all been a bunch of mingy plebs, and we'd like it to stop." 

"Basically what Gav says, but without the stupid British insults." Michael ignored Gavin's muttered "oi" in favor of glaring at the audience. "I want to put to rest all these stupid rumors. I am not cheating on Gavin, and I would never do something like that. This man right here, Ray Narvaez, is both my boyfriend and Gavin's. We are very happy together." 

"Or we were, until you lot decided that it was your business to 'defend our relationship' as you told Ray so many times. So we've decided that if this bloody hate mail does not stop, we'll be canceling our show." Ray reacted for the first time since he had been pulled on stage, stepping out from where he was positioned slightly behind Gavin. 

"Wait... wait, you can't cancel your show because of me! This is... this is what you love-" Michael pulled Ray around, kissing him. 

"We love the show, Ray, but we love you even more. You're more important to us than all this. So if they keep harassing you, we'll quit the show and go be normal people again. Because we never intend to let you go." Most of the audience was cheering wildly, though it was not lost on anyone that a few people got up and left. However, it seemed that they had been right about the majority of their fans, and most people were still happy for their favorite TV show hosts. 

"Now we know that most of you guys are pretty awesome people who would never lash out at us. And so we've decided to do a special little segment on today's show where we will tell you about ourselves... now just so you all know, this is not an invitation for you to bombard us with questions on our personal lives in the future. We will most likely never do this again, but we figure its probably the best solution right now." 

"So we have a couple of mics set up in the audience there, so people can line up to ask us questions for the next 20 minutes or so. But if we don't like your questions, we won't answer them, so don't be silly little sausages, just ask us good questions." The three men retreated to sit on a sofa that had been placed on stage for them, Ray tucked in between the other two still. And as he sat on stage with Michael and Gavin, holding both their hands and listening to them tease each other and interact with the audience, he forgot all about those awful people and was simply happy. Things might not be perfect, they had a long hard road ahead of them, being three men in such a relationship, living lives that were always in the public eye. But it was worth it, because they loved each other, and that was all that mattered to them, that was more important that anything else.


End file.
